Authors Get Raw on Slate

Slate has run a fascinating round-table transcript with authors Sasha Issenberg (The Sushi Economy: Globalization and the Making of a Modern Delicacy) and Trevor Corson (The Zen of Fish: The Story of Sushi, From Samurai to Supermarket). If you give a fig about your nigiri and maki—or sustainable seafood—it’s absolutely worth a read. But for those too busy to click the link, here’s the summary:

There’s an argument that more authentic and traditional sushi is actually pickled, rather than served hyperfresh.

Also, there’s an argument that tuna and salmon are precisely the wrong style of fish for true sushi; they’re not richly flavored enough.

And there’s an argument that ever trying to find the “true” or “traditional” anything is a waste of time, because everything’s in flux and driven by the demands of commerce and fashion.

Finally, kiss sushi as we know it goodbye in the next few decades as all of our oceanic fish stocks implode.